Behind the News (BTN) is an ABC news show aimed at children aged 8 to 13 years. BTN helps students to understand the issues and events outside their own lives.
Structure and features
There is a new episode of BTN each week of the school term. Each episode can be watched as a full length 20 to 25 minute news program, or separated into individual segments. There are transcripts for each segment.
Teachers and parents can choose relevant video segments for students to watch.
You can ask comprehension questions using these approaches:
- predicting and activating prior knowledge
- questioning
- visualising
- monitoring and clarifying
- making connections
- inferring
- determining importance
- summarising and synthesising.
Teacher notes
Focus areas
- Reading
- Responding to texts.
Curriculum links
- HASS
- Science
- History
- Social issues
- Current affairs.
Assessment
Students can answer comprehension questions developed by teacher or parent.
